How bad is lavender, really?

I know that this has come up in here before, because there's a broken link to it in an article from 2011 (linked below), but since I can't read that anymore, I thought I'd ask.

I know that Paula Begoun/Paula's Choice/Beautypedia basically thinks that lavender is the devil. Of course a main selling point of their products is no fragrance, ever, but they seem to have a bigger problem with lavender than most other scents.

Then there's this article that claims to debunk that perspective, but it's also written by someone with an agenda, as an advocate for aromatherapy and essential oils.

As a researcher myself, ideally I would read all the literature personally and come to my own conclusions, but I have plenty of (totally unrelated) research do, so that's probably not the best use of my time. I'm curious as to where The Beauty Brains (and others) stand on the benefits and risks of lavender in skin care products. It seems to be an extremely common fragrance ingredient. I wonder if because people associate the scent with relaxation, they think that the oil must be gentle? How much damage is likely to be done to skin? Does it have any actually useful purpose?

(ETA: I messed up the formatting of this somehow and ended up deleting the last part. I added it back in. Hopefully it still makes sense.)

sarahf: The first link you gave is the same article I linked above, and the second one is by the same writer. He seems to be in the business (or at least hobby) of promoting essential oils and aromatherapy, as you can see on his website (roberttisserand.com). So it seems to me that he would have as much of a pro-fragrance agenda as Paula's Choice has an anti-fragrance agenda, potentially. I'm interested in how people who don't have a dog in the fight would interpret these studies.

For instance, Paula's Choice says lavender is a "pro-oxidant" and Mr. Tisserand says that it just oxidizes over a period of weeks or months, which is not the same thing. I've not really in a position to evaluate which of those claims is more accurate.

So much stuff has lavender in it, so I'd like to know whether I really need to make an effort to avoid it or not.

Reminds me of that recent xo Jane article. People said they don't trust fragrance because they don't have to say what's in it. I think its a huge leap to think it is therefore dangerous. I'm sure perfumers aren't allowed to poison us!

This is something that's always fascinated me too. I've read Paula for more than 10 years now and she does occasionally change her stance on something when she feels the evidence warrants it, so I'm more inclined to believe what she says (I might have a slight bias because her products work so well for me).

I have to say I'm in the pro lavender field but that comes from years of using it directly on skin. Only high quality pure lavender essential oil. I worked for 20 years as a makeup artist/ special effects prosthetic artist as well as teaching those subjects along with beauty therapy, and aromatherapy. Very often actors would have reactions to makeup or prosthetics, particularly prosthetics due to the chemicals they contained and to counteract this and reduce redness quickly myself and colleagues would apply neat lavender EO, it's great for calming redness and taking the sting out of skin reactions. I use it on my own skin too as well as on my children for the past 23 years. Of course there will be people who have allergies to lavender as with anything so checking is imperative

I've disagreed with Her (Paula) ((when don't I disagree!?)) on a few things, but for the most part she seems to know quite a wealth of decent products, and a jumping point for googling information. I gotta read into the lethal lavender too though because I use it everywhere, with lavender scented everything! Although I have never once heard lavender to be detrimental to one's health, if it is, I am in some deep trouble. It's like ... My scent! (As well as rose, amber, hyacinth, and gardenia.) (I like smelling like old ladies apparently.) I'll try to post something I find too, if Randy doesn't get to it first.

Yo, I think I figured what got Paula's Ahem twisted.... But first I'm going to tell you the stuff you already knew.

So you know know to rub ess oils directly, and to dilute them, if not, there is a reason. And ANYTHING can be an antigen in a form of an allergen, lavender is no exception, especially since it has anti-bac properties, It could irritate broken skin, and leave it red, tender and irritated. Wearing too strong of perfume, or having too strong of an aroma therapy diffuser can give you headaches. Ingesting it may bind you, up and cause you to gain weight. (probably cause you're bound up!) And btws, I didn't bother fact checking WebMD, half of an opinion they had on the matter, because Seal team 6 should take them out for terrorism. :D

With that said, I think, and I can't be sure, it's gynocemastia. It's where little boys get TIG OL BITTIES prepuberty. I feel as though if it affects prepubescent, it's likely to have an effect on the breast trajectory of women but what do I know. I can barely spell that word, and I doubt I have it right so, you bet I have one heck of a source http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17267908e.

Side note, on this page they said ingesting it may be poisonous as well. I can't fathom how. But I guess too much of anything...? If anyone can comment on this?